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UBRARY OF CONGRESS 





'Iass„_ 



THE BEQUEST OF 

DANIEL MURRAY 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

1<»25 



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'• OF KINGS COUNTY 

(INCORPORATED) 

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H<thr>lfeAl Dfi'v^ocro.-t^c Clubo-f Brook 



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OF KINGS COUNTY ^^/ 

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The bequest of 
Daniel Murray, 
VVashington, D. C. 
1925. 



In 



dllub ant) Jorum 

(incorporated) 

Executive Offices^ 4 and 5 Court Square 

The Thomas Jefferson Building 

Meetings, Thursdays of each W«efc, 
Lectures, Third Friday of each Month. 

RUFUS LEWIS PERRY, A. B. LL.B., President 

WALTER \V. DELSARTE, LL. B. Vice-President 

ROBERT HAMILTON, Writer Secretary 

SAMUEL F. HORN Adjwster Recording Secretary 

SAMUEL A. PEASE, L.L.B. Lawyer Financial Secretary 

WILLIAM KUSSEL JOHNSON, ESQ. Treasurer 

CLARENCE A. SMITH Chairman Membership Comfnittee 

ALPHONSE JACKSON Chairvian Campaign Committee 

JAMES A. JACKSON, Broker Chairman Executive Committee 

RUFUS LEWIS PERRY A.B. Chairman Lecture Committee 

JAMES A. JACKSON Chairman Organization Rights 

SAMUEL PEASE Chairman Laiv Committee 

FRED A. PERRY Chairman City, County and State Committee 

CHARLES LANSING. ESQ. 
WALTER S. BARKER, ESQ. 
MILFORD W.JACKSON. ESQ. 

FORUM 
RUFUS LEWIS PERRY, President 

PROF. MELVILLE CHARLTON Chairman Music Commiitee 
ROBERT HAMLITON, ESQ. Chairman Literary Committee 



CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION 

of the 

HANNIBAL DEMOCRATIC CLUB 

and 

FORUM. 

STATE OF NEW YORK, ) 
CITY OF NEW YORK, )ss. 
COUNTY OF KINGS, ) 

WE. THE UNDERSIGNED, of full age, being 
desirous of associating ourselves together for 
Political, Social and Literary purposes, and to 
create a fund to build a Club House, Home and 
Hall, as hereinafter is more particularly described, 
pursuant to and in conformity with Acts of the 
Legislature of the State of New York, relating to 
]\Iembership Corporations, do hereby certify and 
declare that we are all of full age, — all — of us are 
citizens of the United States, and all of us are 
residents of the State of New York. 

We do further certify and declare as follows: 

First. — That the particular objects for which 
said corporation is formed are as follows, viz: 
I. To create a fund to build, erect, construct, 



purchase, rent or lease a house, home or club and 
hall for the members of the Club, Society or 
Organization, and to buy, purchase, erect, con- 
struct, transfer or trade real estate or personal 
property to carry said object into effect; and to 
mortgage or assign mortgage or mortgages for 
a like purpose, or to rent, lease or assign any and 
all leases to real estate for a like purpose; and to 
engage in buying, purchasing, selling, transfer- 
ring, mortgaging, leasing, renting or assigning 
mortgages to real estate or personal property, or 
to do any legitimate or legal act or acts, thing 
or things, necessary or requisite to be done to 
carry said object into effect, and in buying, pur- 
chasing, selling personal property of any and all 
description for a like purpose. 

II. To do any and all things necessary to be 
done in order to form a pleasant and harmonious 
union, understanding and relation with the Dem- 
ocratic Party of Kings County and the State and 
Nation and the Regnant Race in general, giving 
up all to said Party, except such as was meant for 
mankind; to secure justice to the members of the 
Ethiopian Race and insure tranquility in their 
homes; to provide for a common and united de- 
fense where the interest of the Ethiopian is in- 
volved; and to promote the general welfare of 



xht members of the Club and of the Ethiopian 
Race in general, and to secure the blessings of 
liberty under that clause of the State and Federal 
Constitutions which protects life, liberty and 
property to ourselves and to our posterity, 

III. To act in concert, union and perpetual 
harmony with the regular Democratic Organiza- 
tion of the County of Kings in particular, and the 
City and State of New York in general, and to 
promulgate the principles and tenets of the Dem- 
ocratic Party among the Ethiopian Race, and 
influence it to espouse the cause of the Demo- 
cratic Party and its candidates, and to follow 
Democracy as long as it teaches the doctrine of 
truth, right and liberty, and just recognition of the 
Ethiopian; only remembering that we are Ethi- 
opians first and Democrats next. 

IV. To m.aintain a Literary Society, Depart- 
m^ent and Lyceum for the diffusion and discussion 
of economic and political problems and their rela- 
tion to the Ethiopian and other problems of inter- 
est to the race; and to awaken an interest in the 
true Ethiopian as to his duty to Government and 
true citizenship, in the hope to win the esteem 
and respect of other races as a member of the 
body politic, and for a just recognition of the 



race to appointment to office, relying upon the 
doctrine that "The husbandman that laboreth 
must be the first to partake of the fruit." 

Second. — That the corporate name by which 
said Corporation hereby to be formed shall be 
known and distinguished is and shall' be 
THE HANNIBAL DEMOCRATIC CLUB OF 
BROOKLYN. 

Third. — That the territory in which the opera- 
tions of said Corporation are to be principally 
conducted is the County of Kings. 

Fourth. — That the principal office of said Cor- 
poration shall be located in the Borough of 
Brooklyn, County of Kings, and State of New 
York. 

Fifth. — That the number of Directors of said 
Corporation shall be six. 

Sixth. — That the names and places of residence 
of the persons to be the Directors of said Corpo- 
ration until its hrst annual meeting are: 

Rufus Lewis Ferry, io6t St. AL'irk's Avenue,. 
Brooklyn. 

William Russell Johnson, 94 Johnson Street, 
Brooklyn. 

James A. Jackson. 106 Adelphi Street, Brook- 
lyn. 



Frederick A. Perry, 1600 Bergen Street, Brook- 
lyn. 

Cornelius Hughes, 16 West 136th Street, Man- 
hattan Borough, New York. 

Sumner H. Lark, 360 Atlantic Avenue, Brook- 
lyn. 

Robert Hamilton, 214 Milford Street, Brooklyn. 
Seventh. — That the annual meeting of said Cor- 
poration shall be held on the ist Monday of Jan- 
uary in each and every year. 

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, We have made 
and signed this Certificate in duplicate and have 
hereunto set our hands and affixed our respective 
seals this 28th day of January, one thousand nine 
hundred and ten. 

RUFUS L. PERRY, 
WM. RUSSELL JOHNSON, 
JAMES A. JACKSON, 
FREDERICK FI. PERRY, 
CORNELIUS A. HUGHES, 
SUMNER H. LARK, 
ROBERT HAMIL']:ON. 
STATE OF NEW YORK, ) 
CITY OF NEW YORK, )ss. 
COUNTY OF KINGS, ) 



I, Lillian S. Buchacher, a Commissioner of 
Deeds, duly commissioned and qualified, do hereby 
certify that on this 28th day of January, in the 
year one thousand and nine hundred and ten, per- 
sonally appeared before me, Rufus Lewis Perry, 
William Russell Johnson, James Jackson, Fred- 
erick A. Perry, Cornelius Hughes, Sumner H. 
Lark and Robert Hamilton, to me severally 
known and known to me to be the individuals 
named in and who executed the foregoing Cer- 
tificate, and they thereupon severally acknowl- 
edged before me that they did execute the same 
for the purposes therein set forth. 

[Seal] LILLL^N S. BUCHACHER, 

Commissioner of Deeds for the City of New- 
York. 

I, Samuel T. Maddox, Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the State of New York, of the Second 
Judicial District, do hereby approve the fore- 
going certificate of incorporation, and consent 
that the same be filed. 



Dated at the County Court House, Brooklyn, 
January 28th, 19 10. 

S. T. MADDOX, 
Justice Supreme Court, 
Second Judicial Dist, 
O. K. 

J. F. M. A. 
10-17-1910. 

STATE OF NEW YORK, ) 

)ss. 
COUNTY OF KINGS, ) 

I, Henry P. Molloy. Clerk of the County of 
Kings and Clerk of the Supreme Court of the 
State of New York in and for said County (said 
Court being a Court of Record), do hereby certify 
"that 1 Jiave compared the annexed with the orig- 
inal Certificate of Incorporation filed in my office 
Oct. 17, 1910, and that the same is a true transcript 
thereof, and of the whole of such original. 

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have here- 
unto set my hand and affixed the seal of said 
County and Court, this 17th day of Oct., igio. 
HENRY P. MOLLOY. 
STATE OF NEW YORK, ) 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY )ss. 
OF STATE. ) 



12 



I have compared the preceding with the original 
Certificate of Incorporation of The Hannibal 
Democratic Club of Brooklyn, filed and recorded 
in this office on the nth day of October, 1910, 
and do hereby certify the same to be a correct 
transcript therefrom and of the whole of said 
original. 

Witness my hand and the seal of ofifice of the 
Secretary of State, at the City of Albany, this 
nth day of October, one thousand nine hundrecf 
and ten. 

[Seal.] HORACE G. TEXNANT, 

Second Deputy Secretar^^ of State. 



THE NEGRO AND POLITICS. 

The political campaign is now on in earnest, 
and the Republican party is courting the colored 
vote. The Negro smiles at this courtship. The 
Republicans now cry aloud, "God hath made of 
one blood all nations of men," and they take the 
colored voter right to their heart, call him 
brother, and tell him of the days of '61. 

As usual, speculation is rife with the regnant 
race as to where the Negro stands in this cam- 



13 

paign. Will he stand by the Old Guard, receive 
a loin of pork and a picture of Abraham Lincoln 
for that inalienable right called the franchise? 
Will he stand with Hearst, and, if Hopper is 
elected, he resign and allow Hearst to sit as Gov- 
ernor? Or will he emancipate himself from these 
and go to the arms of Democracy, which are out- 
stretched for him, promising to respect his man- 
hood rights, guarantee equal protection before 
the law, and thus dispel the feeling of hatred and 
prejudice which is engendered because the bulk 
of the Negro vote has been Republican and is so 
counted before it is cast? 

Prudence would dictate that candidates sub- 
mitted to the people for their suffrage be esti- 
mated not alone by their character, or the plat- 
form upon which they stand, but by the element 
and force which created them, and the kindred 
power which will shape their action and conduct, 
if election success should crown their efforts. 
From this viewpoint, the Negro should be found 
with the Democrats in the coming election. The 
Republican party is no longer the champion of 
Negro rights, as it is understood: that mantle it 
has long ago discarded. But the Negro, in his 
love for the party and for what it once stood, 
was blind, and has just awakened. It was thrown 



14 

io the four winds in the treatment accorded the 
Negro soldiers by ex-President Roosevelt, ancf 
the race will have but to recall Brownsville and 
iremenlber that it was the bravery of her sons in 
marching "into the jaws of death and the mouth 
of heir* at El Caney that spared the life of Col; 
Roosevelt; this alone will be sufficient to alienate 
the colored vote fi*om the Republican party in 
this State. Col. Roosevelt has often talked 
loudly of "fair play," the "open door," and the 
"door of hope*' for the Negro. Yet, when in the 
South recently he did not raise his voice against 
disfranchisement, the jini crow car, or lynching. 
He knows it is wrong in principle, practice and 
law. 

Dare he sa}' with Lincoln, in whose company 
he recently placed himself in his criticism of the 
Supreme Court, "I am not bound to win, but 1 
am bound to be true; I am not bound to succeed, 
but I am bound to live up to what light I have. 1 
must stand with anybody who stands right, stand 
\vith him while he is right, and part with him when 
he goes wrong." What would Lincoln say of a 
man who proclaimed that his policy would be 
to appoint no Negro to a L>dcral position an}^- 
where in the South, where white men objected to 
the Negro holding office. For these and other 



15 



wrongs to the Negro, committed without a voice 
of protest from Col. Roosevelt or the Republican 
party, there is and will be a bitter war waged 
by the Negro on Roosevelt and his policies. 

Negroes who have differed for years on race 
affairs now consult for the purpose of making a 
united attack. This political war will extend to 
any candidate, National or State, supported by 
Col. Roosevelt and submitted to the Negro for his 
suffrage as a Republican. P^or this purpose the 
National Independence League, an organization 
of great force and strength, composed of Negro 
men of intelligence and culture, will devote their 
attention and influence. An example of the 
League's attitude is to be found in the following 
letter from Hon. William M. Trotter, its secre- 
tary, a Negro scholar, and a gentleman of refine- 
ment, Editor of the Boston "Guardian:" 

To Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, 
Oyster Bay, N. Y. 

Dear Sir: 

At the meeting of the Campaign Committee of 
the National Independent Political League in 
Washington, D. C, I publicly challenged you to 
show the courage on your Southern tour to con- 



t6 



demn the jim-crowing, disfranchising and lynch- 
ing of colored Americans in the South, or to 
publicly approve the same. You failed to do 
either. 

At the same meeting I challenged you to a 
joint debate, and now send you the challenge in 
writing, on your solution of the so-called Negro 
problem as stated by you last August in the 
National Negro League, sometimes called "busi- 
ness" league. I will take the affirmative of the 
proposition that your solution is fallacious and 
false, a violation of human nature, contrary to the 
history of the struggle against oppression, and a 
drawing of the color line. I will meet you at any 
place in New York City suitable for a public 
debate, on any day except election day, on one 
week's notice. 

Awaiting your reply, I am, 
Yours sincerely, 

WM. MONROE TROTTER, 

21 Cornhill, Boston, Mass. 

Soon after the receipt of this letter, Col. Roose- 
velt is said to have taken an aeroplane ascension. 
If he ascended high enough, he would have seen 
Abraham Lincoln, for he is in Heaven. 



J7 



Where in former years the Negro press was 
subsidized by the Republican party to bring the 
faithful into the fold, a great change has taken 
place. An enlightened press is now in the field 
and neither money nor promise can swerve them 
from performing a duty they owe to the race. 
Two hundred newspapers now wisely edit their 
journals, having nothing but the best interest of 
the race at heart, and that wisdom demands a 
repudiation of the idea that the Negro owes 
any debt to the Republican party except such as 
is created by its acts towards the race. Up to 
date nothing can be recorded that is gratifying 
as having been bestowed by New Nationalism in 
counter distinction to Republicanism as created 
by Lincoln and expounded by Lovejoy, Sumner, 
Garrison, Wilberforce, Beecher, and a host of 
other noble and great Republicans. 

This new political institution decrees that the 
Negro must work out his own salvation. He 
must stop singing^ "You ma}- have all this world, 
but give me Jesus, '^ and engage himself in the 
activities of life. He niust be a man; he must 
wear over his breast the motto, 'T am a man 
and nothing is foreign to me that relates to man." 
This is good for the race, for it is now ready 
io receive the decree and will support men and 



i8 



mensnres, rather than parties; for like every 
other citizen the Negro's happiness both in this 
life and the life to come is involved in religion 
and in politics. In his religion he finds his 
God, his faith, his practice, his hope. In his 
politics he finds his safe-guards to his life, liberty 
and pursuit of happiness. In his religion he en- 
joys a fixedness in doctrine and promises, and his 
hope rests upon the certainty of the immutable 
things in which he believes. He has a JesuS) 
who is no respector of persons continually look- 
ing after his spiritual interests, and in that Jesus 
he hopefully confides; yet, with all this, the 
Negro like the Sons of Shem and Japheth, is di- 
vided in religious affairs and nobody objects. He 
is to be found in all Christian denominations. 

This is a result of his liberty to think and act 
for Tiimself in matters according to his under- 
standing of the scripture. Division then results 
from a difference in understanding. The same 
IS true in politics. Colored men of thought and 
positiveness differ in regard to politicians or can- 
didates for office and in regard to political issues 
and the relatve importance of the different issues. 
Thus differing, they go to the part}^ of like opin- 
ion and work for victory. 

As a rule, the Negroes were heretofore devoted 



19 

Republicans, but the exceptions to that rule are 
growing potentiously larger every year. The 
ratio is now 2 to 3 in favor of Republicanism. 
We have now a strong Democratic Club in nearly 
every large city. Twenty years ago such an 
anomaly would have created a mob. The reason 
for this is that the Republican party or New 
Nationalism has parted company with principle, 
and made love to ambition. 

Republicanism no longer teaches equality be- 
fore the law; right here is where the difference 
of opinion steps in and begets division, and lead's 
the thoughtful Negro to a party whose mission 
is to vindicate the freedom of Democracy and 
not the constraint of Republicanism or New 
Nationalism as it is understood, whose laws are 
made not for a favored few, but for all. and 
whose glory lies not in the ambition of any 
single man or set of men, but in the well-being 
of all citizens; and in this spirit it is a duty 
the Negro owes to himself and to his race to 
array himself against the forces that are against 
his interests and ally himself with those most 
conducive to his happiness. The history of the 
Republican party in the last ten years towards 
the Negro, is a history of an abandonment of 
those principles for which the Negro gave his 



suffrage and support. The record of the Demo- 
cratic party and its leaders in the North during 
the same period is one of respect for manhood 
rights and the right of the black man, and a 
desire to accord him representation in office ac- 
cording to his numerical strength and fitness. 

In the South, it is different, simply because 
the Negro has always been found and counted 
with the Republican party, irrespective of plat- 
form or candidate, and has thereby demonstrated 
hostility to the majority, who retaliated by pass- 
ing laws hostile to him. This is the natural 
result of political hostility. It was true one 
hundred years ago, it is true to-day and it will 
be true one hundred years- hence, and those with 
whom the Negro cast his vote were unable to 
afford him relief. The Northern Republican 
failed to interfere with this unjust legislation 
brought about by reason of the Negro's fidelity 
to the party, for fear of winning disfavor with 
the regnant South, or heeded the cry to let the 
South settle the question in its own way as 
President Taft has allowed. In this condition the 
Negro has found himself in a most unfortunate 
situation, and his love for the Republican party 
has been the direct means of his disfranchisement, 
and when appeal for relief has been made to that 



21 



party having control of both branches of Con- 
gress, it was denied. 

In nearly every case where an appeal has 
been made to a Republican Supreme Court to 
redress the wrongs committed upon the race, 
the same has been denied. This treatment is 
just the opposite to that accorded the race by 
the Democrats, and we find in our city colored 
Democrats drawing salaries of more than one 
hundred thousand dollars, through influence of 
the Hon. Chas. F Murphy of Xew York County 
and Hon. John E. :\rcCooey of Kings County. 
and one Xegro was elected judge on the Demo- 
cratic ticket. 

Predicated upon representation according to 
numerical strength this is reasonable, contrasted 
with what the colored Republicans got from 
Gov. Hughes when they supported him and his 
party. The ratio is one hundred to nothing. We 
have a Democratic mayor in our city, the like of 
which Xew York has never witnessed. Treating 
all classes and creeds alike under the law and 
giving special privileges to none: with Mayor 
Gaynor it is not a question of color or creed, 
but one of fitness for office and our city govern- 
ment is run in an orderly way without fuss or 
fume, and the individual right of each citizen 



is respected. The Negroes supported Justice 
Gaynor because they knew him, and an instance 
of his strength of character, fitness and fairness 
is found in his refusal to follow the appeal of 
public clamor to suppress certain pictures due 
solely to race prejudice. Roger Taney was a 
brilliant man, but he subordinated his intelli- 
gence to the prejudices of the times. Both 
Mayor Gaynor and Roger Taney were justices, 
one had and the other has great opportunities 
before him, the difference between the two men 
is the difference between our city and State gov- 
ernment. One Democratic, the other Republican; 
one firm, the other tottering under the weight 
of political demagogues, requiring investigating 
committees before election to give I't the appear- 
ance of stability. 

Look at the legislature to-day. There is more 
demagogy in it in vocalized form than ever 
before. It is because principle has been placed 
aside and ambition is in the ascendency. The 
Independence League once had a hold upon a 
portion of the Negro vote, but the attitude of 
Mr. Hearst in his newspapers towards the Negro 
has estranged the vote from him, and Mr. Hearst 
is considered nothing more than a demagogic 
rhetorician, an artful political panderer to popu- 



23 

lar prejudice, seeking to control the people by 
specious and deceitful arts. He knows that a 
vote cast for his cause is a vote lost; a vote 
thrown away. His attitude towards the race 
has been in line with his political policy and is 
in severe Contrast to the New York "World," 
which has always accorded the Negro a fair show 
and advocated just treatment for him. 

At times the "World" has been alone in cham- 
pioning the cause of the race, and the World 
is with the cause of Democracy. Jeremiah says, 
"Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand." The 
time is near, election day will be a day most 
propitious for her to do it, and in stretching 
forth that hand, a ballot will be cast for the en- 
tire Democratic State ticket. Those Republicans 
provoked at the defeat of Col. Roosevelt in the 
Republican caucus, and of the "Old Guard" at 
the Republican convention, will then realize that 
"whom the gods would destroy, they first make 
mad." Respectfully, 

RUFUS L. PERRY. 



* 



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